Review Pet Peeves

Review Pet Peeves

 
 
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Miss Cinnamon Miss Cinnamon
When you're browsing reviews to find your next bedtime (anytime) buddy, or reading recently published reviews, or analyzing the latest batch of Upgrade Request reviewers, what makes you cringe? What makes you take a deep breath and count to ten? What makes you react so violently that you can't possibly comment on it, because you're afraid you'll come across as a vicious, foaming review nazi?

For me, it's mixing up "it's" and "its". I see so many contributors, including those who are pretty awesome reviewers and who have been with the community a long time, who are paragons of sexual wisdom, commit this offense.

For the record:

it's -- a contraction for "it is". If you write "I simply love it's soft, shaggy texture" it actually means "I simply love IT IS soft, shaggy texture". In most cases, this is probably not what you meant.

its -- possessive form of "it". As in, "belongs to it". "I simply love its soft, shaggy texture" means that it possesses a soft, shaggy texture which is pleasing to you. Alternatively, if you write "its great!", you are saying "it possesses great". Which sounds... kind of cute... but doesn't make much sense.

Similar issues with their, they're, and there.

What are your pet peeves? Is it grammatical? Is it with the content? The structure? Share please
03/21/2009
Carrie Ann Carrie Ann
(EdenFantasys)
Quote:
Originally posted by Miss Cinnamon
When you're browsing reviews to find your next bedtime (anytime) buddy, or reading recently published reviews, or analyzing the latest batch of Upgrade Request reviewers, what makes you cringe? What makes you take a deep breath and count to ten? What ... More
Then and than.

Argh!
03/21/2009
Carrie Ann Carrie Ann
(EdenFantasys)
Though, honestly, even the best of us make errors.

I was many times better with grammar when I was in my late teens and early twenties and what I'd learned in school was still fresh. Nearly twenty years later it's a little more difficult to remember the exact rules every time.

I have my pet peeves but since I'm not perfect I try to let them go without freaking out about them.

Unless a review is unreadable or grammatically so horrible it sounds like a brain damaged monkey wrote it, I try to judge more based on content than grammar.
03/21/2009
Machina Machina
Guilty as charged... I just went back and looked at my last review and noticed that I had misused "it's" a few times. :/

It might help if you could send a quick message to the author if notice any minor grammatical errors in someone's review.
03/21/2009
Mamastoys Mamastoys
Fragmented statements drive me crazy. Having to do a lot of reports that go to court, I tend to pick up on this and also the above issues. I try to make sure mine are correct but I know that they all aren't..
03/21/2009
Miss KissThis Miss KissThis
Wear, ware, and where.
You WEAR lingerie. WARE is a product or good (think pottery). WHERE is a setting or place.

Your, you're:
You're = you are. Your = possessive.

I only wince if I see the above grammar errors, but that's about it.

The one thing that actually irritates me is when there is no capitalization whatsoever. If you can't make an effort to hit the "shift" button a few times, I can't make the effort to read your review. Sorry.
03/21/2009
PurpleReign PurpleReign
I thought every first review toy shipment came with a copy of Strunk and White? You mean everyone didn't receive one in their box?
03/21/2009
Oggins Oggins
Sorry, I am guilty. I do honestly know the difference between its and it's but for some reason when I'm typing, "it's" just automatically comes out. It's like it's pre-programmed or something. Almost like an automatic response. I'll go back through and change them all eventually but there are several.....

I would say my pet peeve would be abbreviating words like your for ur, unless it's part of the product name. It drives me nuts! =)
03/21/2009
Miss Cinnamon Miss Cinnamon
Quote:
Originally posted by Carrie Ann
Though, honestly, even the best of us make errors.

I was many times better with grammar when I was in my late teens and early twenties and what I'd learned in school was still fresh. Nearly twenty years later it's a little more difficult to ... More
I know--for minor, common grammatical mistakes, I just grit my teeth, take a deep breath, and move on. It doesn't kill the review for me, and I still rate it according to the actual usefulness of content. Hence, pet peeve, not "reason to set people on fire".

My semi-stickler status is probably my high school grammar teacher's fault. She was a stickler with a badge and she loved unicorns. Bless her soul, she had us trained!
03/21/2009
MaxD MaxD
I'm not bothered by minor errors. If a review is readable, informative and helpful, that's all that matters. It's about helping customers make an informed decision/purchase. If it helps with that, that's all that matters. I don't obsess over minor problems at all. Not worth my time or energy.
03/21/2009
Carrie Ann Carrie Ann
(EdenFantasys)
Quote:
Originally posted by Miss Cinnamon
I know--for minor, common grammatical mistakes, I just grit my teeth, take a deep breath, and move on. It doesn't kill the review for me, and I still rate it according to the actual usefulness of content. Hence, pet peeve, not "reason to set people ... More
Heh. I had one of those too. I was stuck with the same woman for Latin, Typing and Mythology. I'd have disemboweled her with a unicorn horn if I could have gotten away with it.

I graduated in 1988, however, so the Latin has fled my brain and the typing rules have changed and grammar gets shoved to the side in favor of sounding the way I actually speak a lot of times. I'm known and loved for one word sentences followed by a run on sentence of epic proportions. Lmao.

I still check to see if my eyes are bleeding, though, when someone uses then instead of than and vice-versa.
03/21/2009
Epiphora Epiphora
Ugh, "it's" and "its" kills me. But I die when I see "your" instead of "you're." That's the worst. I mean, other than ridiculously bad reviews.
03/21/2009
Sammi Sammi
(EdenFantasys)
Lots of exclamation points! Sometimes they're fine! But sometimes every sentence has one! Drives me nuts!
03/21/2009
Carrie Ann Carrie Ann
(EdenFantasys)
Quote:
Originally posted by Sammi
Lots of exclamation points! Sometimes they're fine! But sometimes every sentence has one! Drives me nuts!
lmao!
03/21/2009
Sleeping Dreamer Sleeping Dreamer
Quote:
Originally posted by Sammi
Lots of exclamation points! Sometimes they're fine! But sometimes every sentence has one! Drives me nuts!
Do you watch Seinfeld? The one episode where Elaines boyfriend writes "She had the baby." as opposed to "She had the baby!", and she made it her main mission to write everything with exclamation points.
03/21/2009
Sleeping Dreamer Sleeping Dreamer
Overuse of commas or using them in the incorrect places. I'm guilty of it, I LOVE commas and forget the rules a lot of when and where to use them... but I've read a few reviews where the commas interrupt the sentence and completely ruin the flow.

To and too.

I can't really gripe, no one is perfect. I have reviews chock full of spelling errors- mostly because I get so excited when I write a review that my mind tends to go elsewhere. I wasn't an English major so if I have a few spelling or grammatical issues within a review I hope people aren't cruel and vote me less than useful because my review doesn't look like an award winning essay or term paper.
03/21/2009
CaptainBunnyKilla CaptainBunnyKilla
Quote:
Originally posted by Miss Cinnamon
When you're browsing reviews to find your next bedtime (anytime) buddy, or reading recently published reviews, or analyzing the latest batch of Upgrade Request reviewers, what makes you cringe? What makes you take a deep breath and count to ten? What ... More
Eh. I have a hard time getting worked up over misspelled homophones. The beauty of language and context is that there's never any doubt which word you're using (just like you don't ever confuse "its" and "it's" in speech even though they sound the same because of context). It's easy to slip and make the mistake, and I just personally don't think it's worth the hand-wringing. You could easily remove apostrophes from English spelling altogether and there would never be any problem.
03/21/2009
Sammi Sammi
(EdenFantasys)
Quote:
Originally posted by Sleeping Dreamer
Do you watch Seinfeld? The one episode where Elaines boyfriend writes "She had the baby." as opposed to "She had the baby!", and she made it her main mission to write everything with exclamation points.
I haven't seen it in years, but I used to think it was pretty funny .
03/21/2009
Miss Cinnamon Miss Cinnamon
Quote:
Originally posted by CaptainBunnyKilla
Eh. I have a hard time getting worked up over misspelled homophones. The beauty of language and context is that there's never any doubt which word you're using (just like you don't ever confuse "its" and "it's" in speech even though they sound the ... More
I do remember my Intro to College writing instructor talking about the differences between prescriptive and descriptive usage of the English language. His degree was in linguistics, so he had a lot of insight on the matter. What is writing, after all, but a visual representation of the sounds we use to communicate? (Someone who is mute or deaf may have a different opinion on this, but this is how he presented the material.)

For me, the written word is very different from the spoken one. I hear the words I write, and see the words I hear, in a semi-synesthetic way. When I see small usage errors, such as your vs. you're and it's vs. its, it sounds like a sour note in a little symphony. If the review or article or whatever else I'm reading has good content, then I still enjoy it, but I am distracted by the squeaky trumpet, the flat flute... you get the idea.

Maybe I'm just too sensitive for my own good You present some interesting ideas, though. A world without apostrophes! The possibilities are endless.
03/21/2009
Epiphora Epiphora
Quote:
Originally posted by CaptainBunnyKilla
Eh. I have a hard time getting worked up over misspelled homophones. The beauty of language and context is that there's never any doubt which word you're using (just like you don't ever confuse "its" and "it's" in speech even though they sound the ... More
I'm so surprised you think this! LOL.
03/21/2009
Not Here Anymore f/k/a Happy Lady Not Here Anymore f/k/a Happy Lady
Overuse of the word "that" is one of mine. One of my high school yearbook editors pointed out to me (SEVERAL years ago) how often people type "that" when it just isn't necessary.
03/22/2009
That Weird Guy That Weird Guy
I sometimes type faster than I can speak. So I type the most used word right off the bat 90% of the time, just out of habit.
03/22/2009
Gary Gary
(EdenFantasys)
Whenever I am writing anything, my thoughts and my fingers are definitely running at separate speeds. This leads me to make a ton of really obvious mistakes that I know better than to make. Also the more background distractions that are going on, the more mistakes I make. I would assume this much is true for most people.

But here is the real problem for me...

Whenever I am reading back over something that I wrote, my mind tends to fill in the blanks so to speak. I do catch mistakes, but then when someone else reads it they will point out very obvious mistakes. Mistakes that I would have noticed right away if I were reading someone else's writing. Is this normal?
03/22/2009
Sammi Sammi
(EdenFantasys)
Quote:
Originally posted by Gary
Whenever I am writing anything, my thoughts and my fingers are definitely running at separate speeds. This leads me to make a ton of really obvious mistakes that I know better than to make. Also the more background distractions that are going on, the ... More
I think so - I have that problem with all kinds of stuff I write. A lot of times I will have someone else read what I write in hopes that they will catch something I miss.
03/22/2009
Miss Cinnamon Miss Cinnamon
Quote:
Originally posted by Gary
Whenever I am writing anything, my thoughts and my fingers are definitely running at separate speeds. This leads me to make a ton of really obvious mistakes that I know better than to make. Also the more background distractions that are going on, the ... More
That's pretty normal. Most of the writing classes I've been in have warned against making this mistake by either having someone proofread it for you, read it aloud to you, or for you to read it aloud to yourself. The process of reading it out loud instead of reading it "in your head" forces you to concentrate on the words written on the page instead of the words you THINK are there.
03/22/2009
Anica Anica
Not a lot bothers me, if I can make it through a review, then it's all good.

However, a lot, not alot, there is no such word as towards...it's toward. And using A or An, depends on the word following. If it sounds like a vowel, it's 'an', otherwise, it's an 'a'.

Example, "She would love to have an apple" versus "She would love to have a banana".

Blame all this on Mrs. White Honors English class, 7th grade.
03/22/2009
Cinnamon Chambers Cinnamon Chambers
The ones that annoy me are U got to see this dil i ficked, adn it madked cum cum out my noze and my dick liked gettin it from a nother cok, etc etc
03/23/2009
Epiphora Epiphora
Quote:
Originally posted by Anica
Not a lot bothers me, if I can make it through a review, then it's all good.

However, a lot, not alot, there is no such word as towards...it's toward. And using A or An, depends on the word following. If it sounds like a vowel, it's 'an', ... More
"Alot" bothers me too, as does "a" and "an." I'm bothered by everything that's been posted here, so I must be really finicky.
03/23/2009
Miss Cinnamon Miss Cinnamon
Quote:
Originally posted by Cinnamon Chambers
The ones that annoy me are U got to see this dil i ficked, adn it madked cum cum out my noze and my dick liked gettin it from a nother cok, etc etc
HAHAHA. I had to read that three times!
03/23/2009
Sleeping Dreamer Sleeping Dreamer
The question is- will you vote people down if they have a few spelling or grammatical errors? Or does it take quite a lot of errors? Will you comment and tell the reviewer to correct them? or do you find it too rude or distasteful to do so?
03/23/2009
Total posts: 150
Unique posters: 50